The Guardian view on coming-out tales: from A Boy’s Own Story to What It Feels Like for a Girl | Editorial

Groundbreaking memoirs continue to shape the history of LGBTQ+ rights“What if I could write about my life exactly as it was?” the teenage narrator of Edmund White’s A Boy’s Own Story wonders. “What if I could show it in all its density and tedium and its concealed passion, never divined or expressed?” Published in 1982, A Boy’s Own Story was hailed as one of the first coming-out novels, and its author, who died aged 85 last week, as a great pioneer of gay fiction.This auto-fiction relates White’s privileged adolescence in 1950s Chicago, his struggles with his sexuality and search for a psychoanalytical “cure”. In its extraordinary candour about sex – a hallmark of White’s prodigious career – the novel remains startling today. It arrived at a pivotal moment in gay history: after the hope of the Stonewall uprising and just before the devastation of Aids, both of which White documented in what became an autobiographical trilogy with The Beautiful Room is Empty (1988) and The Farewell Symphony (1998).Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Comments

Opinions

Dear Christians: Please stop calling people gay

washington times

There are simple tricks to FORCE your boss to give you a raise... but you have to be willing to make a big sacrifice, KEVIN O'LEARY reveals

about 7 hours ago

Musk and Trump’s bitter feud: Letters to the Editor — June 9, 2025

Newyork Post

I could forgive my 51-year-old husband for having a secret OnlyFans. But when I saw who he was subscribed to, I had a panic attack: SAUCY SECRETS

1 day ago

Newyork Post

Lawmakers’ victim apathy and more: Letters to the Editor — June 8, 2025

1 day ago

Newyork Post

Why there’s no shame in corporate America boycotting LGBT Pride Month

1 day ago

Dailymail

Why Tottenham and Ange Postecoglou split was right, even if it feels awfully wrong to most and borderline obscene - his sacking is the modern-day epitome of the industry's callousness, writes RIATH AL-SAMARRAI

1 day ago

Damp and mouldy housing means too many people are left in the cold

The Herald

MAUREEN CALLAHAN: An insider has revealed the Royal verdict on THAT Meghan twerking video. It's so devastatingly cutting, she may never recover

1 day ago

Steven Camley on the Hamilton by-election

The Herald

Daniel Levy's ridiculous decision to sack Ange Postecoglou is Tottenham's loss, writes CHRIS SUTTON - he will go and win silverware elsewhere

2 days ago

Don’t let the Trump-Musk breakup harm ‘kids’ NASA and SpaceX

Newyork Post

Comments

Opinions

Dear Christians: Please stop calling people gay

Progressive states that care not for laws or the border are the ones tearing us apart

RUTH SUNDERLAND: No wealth means no welfare

Labour can’t preach about hard choices while spending billions on migrant hotels… tax hikes will see Reform surge higher

DEAR JANE: My dad paid for my sister's boob job. I fear the two-word slur friends now say behind her back is true

We’re only just beginning to suffer the consequences of Biden’s disastrous open-border policies

There are simple tricks to FORCE your boss to give you a raise... but you have to be willing to make a big sacrifice, KEVIN O'LEARY reveals

Musk and Trump’s bitter feud: Letters to the Editor — June 9, 2025

We need guardrails for artificial superintelligence NOW — before it’s too late

If Trump has taught us one thing, it is that Scotland needs more mega-wealthy people

Corporation did its best for Glasgow and does not deserve this flak

Democrats incite insurrection over lawful ICE raids

America's unhealthy obsession with New Age spiritualism

Don’t underestimate Donald Trump — he and his goals will survive without Elon Musk

ALEXANDRA SHULMAN'S NOTEBOOK: An unexpected audience with my late, great father

FLOURISHING AFTER 50: My parents made terrible money decisions and now I'm the one paying the price

MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: A serious outbreak of old-fashioned class war hits the NHS

TONY HETHERINGTON: John Lewis binned my carpet - but refuses to give me a refund

From creating the NHS to investing in people, Labour are innovators – next week we’ll do it again… with £86b for hi-tech

JEFF PRESTRIDGE: NatWest leaves tourist hotspot without a single bank branch

Love Island is about many things – but love certainly isn’t one of them

Forget paying France to stop migrants – spend it destroying UK black market that lures them here

Trump’s toxic feud with Musk is the greatest show on Earth – & I have a hunch about President’s ‘terrifying’ next move

Why both the Left and the Right are failing American workers

Why the Democratic NYC mayoral candidates have housing all wrong

NYC needs a mayoral race centered on the city’s needs, NOT Democrats’ anti-Trump obsessions

Trump can leverage Ukraine’s ‘badass’ strike to finally make Putin blink

Rogue Labor MP reveals why Albo is 'seriously an idiot' after a stunning move that benefits absolutely nobody: PVO

I could forgive my 51-year-old husband for having a secret OnlyFans. But when I saw who he was subscribed to, I had a panic attack: SAUCY SECRETS

Lawmakers’ victim apathy and more: Letters to the Editor — June 8, 2025

Why there’s no shame in corporate America boycotting LGBT Pride Month

Why Tottenham and Ange Postecoglou split was right, even if it feels awfully wrong to most and borderline obscene - his sacking is the modern-day epitome of the industry's callousness, writes RIATH AL-SAMARRAI

Damp and mouldy housing means too many people are left in the cold

'My grandmother grew up brushing her teeth with radioactive toothpaste'

Edinburgh is held back by its can’t do attitude. It should be more like Glasgow

MAUREEN CALLAHAN: An insider has revealed the Royal verdict on THAT Meghan twerking video. It's so devastatingly cutting, she may never recover

Steven Camley on the Hamilton by-election

All change after Hamilton by-election but not perhaps in the way that anyone expects

So now you know, SNP: indy is not what people care about

Britain is Scottish: a truth from history that’s still true today

Cheers – of a kind – when Susan Calman went to the Glasgow pub

Major flights win is huge boost for Scottish airport

A rogues’ gallery of speed-demon city politicians

Prez-pardon problems go far beyond Joe Biden’s fishy signatures

DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Why the death of the Tory Party has been greatly exaggerated

Daniel Levy's ridiculous decision to sack Ange Postecoglou is Tottenham's loss, writes CHRIS SUTTON - he will go and win silverware elsewhere

Don’t let the Trump-Musk breakup harm ‘kids’ NASA and SpaceX

The Chinese fungus-smuggling couple: Letters to the Editor — June 7, 2025

Letters to the Editor: Amid tree house standoff, 'what options do the unhoused have left?'

EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Cancelled 'Dreaded Meghan' professor returns to arts role

Why Pres. Trump will win his battle against elite higher education

AI requires an explosion in power, both parties are losing ground and other commentary

ALEX BRUMMER: 'Wise old hen' Chancellor dances on a pinhead

Beware: The Human Rights Campaign is just a scam to push lefty issues

Keir Starmer is about as frightening as a stick of celery… but I’m more scared of him than Putin – here’s why

£4million a DAY migrant hotel bill will continue to spiral unless Labour does three things

Letter to the editor: Hey, those were my tax credits

Senate Judiciary Committee declassifies FBI's files outlining plot to undermine Trump

Our Operation Spider Web drone attack proves no one should count Ukraine out

How NYC is stepping up to stop attacks on Jews BEFORE they happen